Determiner
Grammatically, a quantifier is a particle that consumes a predicate phrase and produces a noun phrase.
For example: sa “some” is a quantifier, bỉo “…is a cup” is a predicate phrase, and sa bỉo is a noun phrase meaning “some cup(s)”.
These particles are called “quantifiers” because they semantically corrsepond to a logical quantifier over a now-bound variable, plus an occurence of that variable. The consumed predicate phrase doubles both as a domain and a name for the variable.
In short, sa bỉo does three things:
- introduces an existentially bound variable bío to the clause;
- specifies that it refers to a cup (or some cups: see plural logic);
- acts in its place in the sentence as an instance of this variable.
Hẻaq jí sa bỉo.